Adam's æbler aka Adam's Apples

Saw this movie with no prior information as CG suggested and thoroughly enjoyed it. Its about a neo-nazi being sent for reform to a church under the supervision of a priest, Ivan. Ivan has an extreme sense of faith and positive outlook to everything. Adam is constantly trying to achieve one simple goal he set for himself, to bake an apple pie. While on this task he is stubborn to not rub off any of the faith or goodness from Ivan. There is a constant tension of will Adam-raise-to-good or Ivan-loose-his-faith and the contrast is interesting. Overall its a great story, with intelligent twists and a thoroughly enjoyable dialog, that gives the characters a full personality. You actually get them, their style, their act, their talk and even what they think like. A MUST SEE

Casino

Yet another gem from the classic combination of Scorsese, De Niro and Joe Pesci. Joe Pesci is undoubtedly one of the best comedians of the 70s and 80s. He is hilarious in this movie. His dialogue delivery is so swift and funny that you will end up laughing like a drain. This movie features the rise and fall of a Casino bookie known as Ace (played by De Niro). Also features Sharon Stone as a drug addict with whom Ace falls in love. This movie is half narrated by De Niro and half narrated by Pesci. Throughout the movie Ace struggles with the friendship of Nicky (Pesci) and the love for Ginger (Sharon Stone). Features a great background score and highly stylist shots which makes me remember the movies of Guy Ritchie. A must see for people who like mafia stuff glorified.. :)

Leben der Anderen, Das a.k.a. Lives of Others

2007 Academy award winner for Best foreign film...
The story is about strict surveillance executed in East Germany before the collapse of Berlin wall.
About how one of the officer who was to listen, transcript every movement of a writer begins to admire the writer as he sees the "system" he believes in is being misused by the few powerful.
Wont say more about the story. As the movie roles on, for me it actually allows me to think through, feel and own the acts of the characters, like I am in their skin in their story.
Viewing the whole movie I cant think of even one frame or word or expression being better or different, it is so finely done.

One thumb rule I am beginning to follow is, "Most Academy award winners for Best foreign film are a must-see!"

Rebecca

The Hitchcock marathon continues .. :) Rebecca is a psychological thriller in which every character is haunted by their own minds. There is no one to catch or there is no mystery to be solved but the characters are deeply haunted by some thing or the other throughout the movie. Mr De Winters who is depressed with the death of his wife Rebecca marries a naive and modest young woman who enters the Manderley only to find that everyone there adores Rebecca. As time passes she feels more and more alien to the Manderley palace. It seems as if Rebecca is the one who decides the course of events in everyone's lives in the Manderley palace even though she is dead a long time back. The second Mrs De Winters tries desperately to be loved by De Winters only to find that he is haunted every moment by the death and memories of Rebecca. Hitchcock launched his career in Hollywood with this movie and this movie went onto become one of all time great movies. This movie is also considered by many to be the best work of the "Master of Suspense".

Marnie

This is a movie which is more closely related to psychoanalysis and has a kleptomaniac as its protagonist known as Marnie. This is one of the not so well known flicks of Hitchcock. Marnie is a compulsive thief who uses her beauty to trap the employers to get herself a job and then eventually robs them. This thing continues till she enters the Rutland's publishing company which is owned by Mark (played by Sean Connery). But at Rutland's she gets caught by Mark who forces her to marry him in spite of her sickness. Mark desperately tries to help her to get over her psychological sicknesses. But she never lets him come near her even after the marriage. Mark tries to get to the core of the problem and finds that Marnie has a repetitive dream in which she refers to her Mama. Though this movie is not up to the expectations of a Hitchcock movie I think it has psychoanalytical relevance and also offers insight about the origins of a repetitive and haunting dream.

The lady vanishes

This movie is set in a train where a young woman travels with an old lady known as Miss Froy. Now the young lady falls asleep and wakes up to find out that Froy has disappeared into thin air. Everyone in the train including the ones in the compartment claim that they have never seen any such lady with any such features described by this young woman. All the passengers in the train suddenly start behaving mysteriously and once again kudos to Hitchcock for weaving such a beautiful mystery with minimal possible resources. The pursuing investigation depicts the young lady just had some wild hallucinations and there never was such a lady known as Miss Froy on the train. But the young lady could not believe that such vivid memories were only hallucinations. She finally finds a companion who would believe in her and agrees to help her in the the investigation of the vanishing lady. This is a lightweight suspense movie with all the characters beautifully woven by Hitchcock. Again the suspense lasts till the final minute when all the pieces start falling into place.

The 39 steps

This is a movie about a gentleman who gets himself into the middle of a dangerous spy game trying to help a spy lady who eventually gets killed. Now this man is accused of the murder of this spy lady and then he is literally left with no one who would believe him. Throughout the movie this guy gets chased chased chased .. This movie has all the characteristics of a Hitchcockian classic and is supposed to have launched the career of Hitchcock. The whole plot unveils only in the final five minutes of the film. After seeing several of his movies I started feeling that maintaining the suspense till last minute is quite an art in itself.